Beyond the Hoax

Science, Philosophy and Culture

Alan Sokal

The 'Sokal Hoax' became front-page news around the world and triggered fierce and wide-ranging convtroversy - for an article that was published in a cultural-studies journal was swiftly revealed by its author, Alan Sokal, to be a cunningly worded parody of extreme postmodernist criticism of science.

Sokal continues to be one of the most powerful voices in the continuing debate about the status of evidence-based knowledge

This is an intelligent and lucidly-written examination of the role of evidence and the misuse of information, spanning science, philosophy, politics and religion

The book also includes a hugely illuminating annotated text of the Hoax itself, and a reflection on the furore it provoked

Beyond the Hoax

Science, Philosophy and Culture

Alan Sokal

Description

Famed for his 1996 hoax that parodied the extreme postmodernist criticism of science, Alan Sokal here exposes many other examples of charlatanism, deflating the postmodernists of the left, the fundamentalists of the right, and the muddle-headed of all political and apolitical stripes. Sokal does revisit his infamous hoax--the original article is included in the book, with new explanatory footnotes--to illuminate issues that are with us even more pressingly today. But the book ranges far beyond this one famous case, to reveal for instance how conservative politicians and industry executives are happily manipulating the vaporous tenets of postmodernism to obscure the scientific consensus on global warming, biological evolution, second-hand smoke, and a host of other issues. Written with rare lucidity, a lively wit, and a keen appreciation of the real-world consequences of sloppy thinking, Beyond the Hoax offers an engaging argument for the vital importance of evidence-based science, showing that clear thinking, combined with a respect for evidence, are of the utmost importance to the survival of the human race.

Beyond the Hoax

Science, Philosophy and Culture

Alan Sokal

Table of Contents

Part I: The Social Text Affair 1. Transgressing the boundaries: Towards a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity [annotated version]2. Transgressing the boundaries: An afterword3. Truth, reason, objectivity, and the Left4. Science studies: Less than meets the eye5. What the Social Text affair does and does not provePart II: Science and Philosophy 6. Cognitive relativism in the philosophy of science7. Defense of a modest scientific realismPart III: Science and Culture 8. Pseudoscience and postmodernism: Antagonists or fellow-travelers?9. Religion, politics and survival10. Epilogue: Epistemology and ethicsIndex

Beyond the Hoax

Science, Philosophy and Culture

Alan Sokal

Author Information

Alan Sokal is Professor of Physics at New York University and Professor of Mathematics at University College, London.